Our Piece of Hell
by shinycat777
Summary: The world is divided, but sometimes the needs of one person, no matter how important, have to come first. A simple quest for friends can lead to war, but when you aren't on the same side, facing them can be the hardest thing you do. Can Ruby decide between her friends and her responsibilities? Or will the world be destroyed in a war of Light and Dark?
1. Chapter 1: Lonely Rose in the Dark

Our Piece of Hell: a RWBY Fanfiction

Chapter One: Lonely Rose in the Dark

**A/N: This and the next chapter will be introductions to the two sides. I think they will be vital to the story, but we'll see. By the way, they're all the same ages as in the show.**

Chapter One

"Crimson, you really must take care of your wings. They were so lovely before." An orange haired man spoke down to the girl in the red hood who sat by herself in the darkness. But, it wasn't really darkness. Everything was black, but she could see just fine.

"Leave me be. They are supposed to be this way."

"You would certainly look much better if you at least tried to take care of them. Just because all of the other Crimson had wings like that doesn't mean that you have to."

Her head snapped up, her silver eyes sharp and streaked with irritation. Her hood slipped off of her head at the sudden movement, her hair not shining, for there was no light. "Roman, I have told you before and I will tell you again. Tradition matters more than looks. If the wings of the red before me were decaying and made of shadow and bone, mine shall be. If their blood ran cold and they flew out of hell on wings of fire, I will do what they did and be as they were. Leave me! The darkness itself is smarter than you!"

He bowed before turning around. "I am sorry, my lady. I was only trying to help." He swiftly opened a door that wasn't there before, exited, and shut it again just as quickly. It disappeared as it had before.

The girl looked at her wings, touching them and wishing. Wishing she wasn't there, wishing she was surrounded by people. No, not surrounded by people. Surrounded by people who actually cared about her. Friends. So, she called for the closest thing she had to a friend. "Yang? Please come here."

The door appeared and opened, revealing a blond girl, fire surrounding her feet at her quick summons. She smiled, stepping in. "Hey, sis! What's up?" The girl's eyes looked far away and Yang questioned her. "Ruby? Is everything alright?"

She shook her head sadly. "No, nothing is alright. A war is coming and I have no one. The only person who I can really consider a friend is you. I need to go out, but they won't let me. Even if I did go out, people would recognize me and hate me for just being who I am. Crimson. What a wretched title to hold." She would have cried, if she could, but her soul was void of emotion. She had never been taught anything but hate, anger, and disappointment. The small bits of other emotions like love and happiness left her confused because of lack of experience. The love came from Yang. She was her only family after all, even if they weren't blood related. She treated her like a sister. She became used to it, but it also made her weary. How she wished for love from others. True good wishes. "I need to get out of here. Even my wings are dying from staying in here. In the fiery dark. For once, I just want to be a normal girl. A normal girl, with normal wings." She looked down, embarrassed by her outburst. "Sorry you have to listen to this."

"Do you have everything?"

What? Confused, Ruby looked up. "What do you mean?"

Yang rolled her eyes. "I _mean_ we're going. Now."

"What? You can't possibly-"

She grabbed her hand, yanking her up. "Weren't you the one who was just complaining? Come on! We're grabbing Nora and Ren first though! They would love going on a trip to the other side!" Yang was now excited, and when she was excited, she always carried out her wishes unless stopped. "We have to be quiet, or they'll catch us. It'll be just like when we were little!" She whispered, leading Ruby through the garden outside the door, jumping behind bushes and actually attempting to sneak. She silently fumed, but was surprised when they successfully snuck out and found Nora and Ren in the forest. She let Yang do the talking, staying back shyly. Nora and Ren had stopped talking to her once she became Crimson two years ago, and she hadn't really talked to them since. The four of them used to be great friends when they were little, always going on adventures together. Did they stop seeing her because they were afraid of her? Or were they angry at her? Finally, her thoughts were interrupted as Yang started talking. "Yo! We're crossing the border to get Ruby some friends, wanna come?"

She was so straight forward about it and she didn't even bother to lower her voice. Ruby looked around, checking to see if anyone was around to have heard that. Not seeing or sensing anyone, she looked back at Yang, hissing. "Yang, you NEED to be quieter! What if someone hears? I'm not supposed to be leaving, let alone outside the garden!"

She just rolled her eyes. "So, you guys coming or not?" She smiled hopefully at them and Nora swung down from the tree branch she was hanging on, bouncing on her heels and giving Ren puppy-dog eyes.

"Oo! That sounds fun! Let's go, Ren! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease?" Ruby couldn't help but smile. In two years, Nora had become no less childish.

He ignored her for a moment, instead looking intently at Ruby. She shifted under his gaze before coming to the conclusion that he had probably been keeping himself and Nora away from her. A spark of anger sifted in her belly, but she gave him an awkward smile. The best thing at the moment was to regain his trust so they could go. Nora obviously looked to him to make big decisions. She felt her palms start to get sweaty in her nervous state, but he finally spoke. "I suppose it can't hurt..."

Nora jumped, hugging him. "Yay! How long are we going to be gone? What time are we leaving? What should I bring? What should I wear? Is anyone else coming? What are we going to do there?"

Yang scraped the toe of her boot on the ground. "We're leaving now. We'll only be gone a few days. You only need to bring yourself and we're the only ones going. We're going to find some other kids. We'll have to hide our wings…"

Ruby's jaw dropped. "ONLY a few days? They'll definitely notice I'm gone by then!" She groaned. "Oh, we'll be in soooo much trouble!" Remembering Yang's last words, she snapped her fingers and her wings were hidden. Not that there was much to show.

"So? What could they do to you? We'll get you some friends, have some fun, come back, get in trouble, wait a while, and do it again! We should make this a thing! Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Suddenly, Ruby was being dragged again, and before she knew it, the trees and landscape became lighter and more illuminated. She heard crunching behind her and looked back to see Nora and Ren running to catch up behind them.

Nora giggled, having not lost any breath from the run. "Hee hee, this is going to be so much fun!"

"Just like old times." Ren said behind them, but she could hear the smile starting to form on his face.

Meanwhile, Yang screeched to a stop in front of her, causing a Ruby sandwich as Ren bumped into her. Nora had already moved on ahead. "Ok guys, we're here!"

Ruby moved from behind Yang but stopped in her tracks at the sight before her, mouth opening in shock.

She was standing on the edge of the grounds of Beacon Academy.


	2. Chapter 2: Welcome to Beacon

Chapter Two: Welcome to Beacon…

**A/N: Hello! I have decided that I will answer questions at the beginning of chapters, if there are any. B.O.B: I thought about making this a Ruby x Jaune thing, or at least a part of it with that ship, but then I kind of half-decided I would subtly hint at different relationships, but not make this a romance featured story. I do ship Ruby x Jaune, so that might change. Thank you and anyone else can feel free to ask questions! If you really want to know something and I don't want to reveal it just yet, I might PM you the answer instead. Also, you might notice some connections with the actual RWBY episodes. I apologize ahead of time if any characters are OOC (Out of Character). On with the show!**

Ruby turned to Yang, furious. "You brought us to a SCHOOL? A SCHOOL FOR TRAINING WARRIORS?!" There was so much that could go wrong, and the kids here were trained to fight people like them! They could be killed before they even opened their mouths to scream.

Ren apparently had the same thought as Ruby and cleared his throat nervously. "Um, Yang I do not think it is such a great idea to be here…"

Yang rubbed the back of her head, smiling crookedly. "I admit, I didn't completely think this through, but don't worry! We can fight our way out if we have to! But it's not like they're trained to recognize our faces! There should be tons of kids our age here." Of course Yang's first answer was fighting.

Nora was still bouncing. "Let's go!" She proceeded to run towards the main building and Ren chased after her. What, was he like her guardian or something?

"Hey, guys! Shouldn't we…" Ruby stopped to see Yang chasing after a boy. "Stick together?" Now she was speaking to herself.

Yang yelled until the boy stopped. "Bernard! HEY BERNARD!" He appeared to greet her before they started walking again, Yang yammering as they became farther and farther away.

Ruby kicked the ground, sighing. "I guess I'm all alone again. Thanks guys. You're the best."

She walked with her head down for a while, looking up every time someone passed by, still on full-alert. She was eventually only greeted by the sound of her own feet scuffing the ground. She didn't attempt to talk to anyone out of fear and lack of experience. It seemed so easy to Yang. How does one start a conversation? Do you just wait for something unfortunate to happen that you can laugh and talk about? The social triangle and experience in general confused her. She suddenly heard something in front of her and before she looked up, she bumped into someone, hard. She fell down, looking up from her sitting position. She shrieked as a bottle of something unknown to her landed on her head. She clutched her head and groaned, looking up cautiously and hoping not to be hit on the head with another bottle. Instead she was greeted by an angry white haired girl. She somehow looked familiar.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

She suddenly knew that it was her fault for not looking where she was going. "I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking and then-"

"You bumped into me and almost broke this!" She picked up the bottle, starting to wave it along with her hand. "This is fire dust, you know! You could have been burned or worse, killed! And then what would your family say?" Not my family. YOUR family. Her choice of words was interesting. She was the one carrying the deadly fire powder.

Ha. "Fire can't kill me." Oh no. She hadn't meant to let that slip. She slapped her hand to her mouth immediately after the words left her mouth. She bit her lip, cursing herself for being such an idiot. She coughed before removing her hand, trying to cover up the slip of the tongue. "I mean, it hasn't killed me yet. I was burned when I was younger."

"Well, you need to be more careful! I can't always be the one in charge!" Wow, this girl really thought she was at the center of the world, huh? Ruby's anger swiveled from herself to the girl, irritated at her bossiness.

"I said I was sorry, princess!" The girl stepped back as if she had just touched a hot stove before turning on her heel and walking off.

Ruby was still on the ground and was about to get up when a shadow fell across her. "Are you alright?"

A girl in black stood before her, bow on her head and black hair cascading down her back. "I think so." If she was here to make friends, then she should start with this girl. "I'm Ruby." She stood up, dusting herself off before sticking out her hand.

She looked at her hand before turning her gaze towards the direction that that girl went off in, brushing aside the offered hand. She took her hand back, looking the same way as the girl. "Blake. You know that was Weiss Schnee, right? _Princess_ Weiss Schnee?"

Ruby's jaw dropped and she blinked a couple of times. No wonder she looked familiar. She had sort-of met her before. As in they had been in the same room. But why was she upset by the princess comment then? If she was really a princess, why did it matter so much? She closed her mouth and shrugged. "I didn't know that."

"Well, it's obvious that you didn't." Well, it's obvious that people aren't very friendly around here. She started to walk away in the same direction as Weiss. "Well, see you around, _Ruby_." She shivered. Blake knew who she really was but wasn't telling. Yet. She _did_ seem like the mysterious type.

She tiredly dragged herself over to a grassy spot, waiting. Waiting for what, she didn't know. Waiting for someone to find her? Waiting for things to get better? Waiting to go home? She became lost in her thoughts and eventually drifted off, the sun warming her. She was jolted awake by someone's voice. "Hey? Helloooooooo?"

She sat right up without looking, slamming her head into someone else's. "Wha- Ow!" He fell back, groaning. She glared at him before snapping. "What?" She had been hit with enough things today that it was annoying and her head throbbed slightly.

"Are you okay? You were kind of… sleeping there."

"Yeah, and what's wrong with that?" This was kind-of her way of saying _"What's it to you?"_

"I don't know. Maybe you'd get in trouble. Is there something about sleeping on the grass during class time? I don't know. I read the rules but it's all kind of a blur. Hey, I haven't seen you around here before. My name's Jaune."

Well, he was friendly enough, if not distracted. "Ruby." She lay back down, closing her eyes. "I'm just visiting. I probably won't be here long."

"Where are you from?" He was genuinely curious about her. Her gaze darted around and her palms were sweaty. She had to make some place up on the Light Side. She couldn't just say, _"I'm Crimson. I come from Hell's Garden." _Hell's Garden. An idea popped into her head.

"I'm from the Gardens of the Wind." She tried to say it as coolly as possible to hide her nervousness at the lie. When he looked slightly clueless, she added to the statement. "It's to the east. A lot of people live there, so there's a chance you might know someone who came from there."

"Oh. Well, I come from Veil. That's where my whole family lives. Do you by chance know where the west courtyard is? Or have you seen Pyrrha Nikos?"

She shook her head, smiling apologetically. "Sorry, no. I don't know the school myself." He was pleasant to talk to. She was beginning to like him.

Suddenly, a girl with red hair and green eyes appeared next to them. "Oh, this is where you got off to. We need to go, or we'll be late to class. Hello." She eyed Ruby and her smile widened. "My name is Pyrrha. And you are?"

"Um, Ruby." The girl's eyes were friendly, but they also looked as if they could see right into her. As if they knew who she really was. Why was she suddenly afraid of her? All she did was ask her her name.

"Well, I gotta go, Ruby. Say, we're going to the Dusk later tonight, around 8. It's a club in Veil. Want to come?"

Her heart leapt. She was being invited somewhere! For pretty much the first time! She momentarily buried her excitement and smiled brightly. They were going to be here a few days, so why not? "Sure, sounds great! I'll be there."

He turned around and started walking, waving his goodbye. "We'll talk more later! See ya!"

She laid back down, closing her eyes and smiling contentedly when an explosion startled her and she sat bolt up. "What the-" She didn't get to finish her sentence before Yang came flying at her.

**A/N: Cliffhanger? I hope so. I want you on the edge of your seat. Sorry if there appears to be quotes going the wrong way in some parts, but if you put a dash and then a quotation mark, it goes backwards, or so it appears on Microsoft Word. Thanks for reading and hopefully see you sometime soon!**


	3. Chapter 3: Beacon Cliffs

Our Piece of Hell; Chapter Three

**A/N: Yeah, yeah, I know it's been a few weeks, and I know I shouldn't be losing interest so little into the story, but… I have no excuses except for lack of interest, really. I was thinking about this story a lot though, telling myself that I would write the next chapter the next weekend, but I never did until I made a DeviantArt account and posted chapter one there, so then I was like 'Screw it, I'll write the next chapter.' And here it is.**

**I am aware that I spelled Vale wrong in the previous chapter, I just thought it was spelled that way, but after seeing episode 8 (before I actually started writing part of this), I realized, 'Oh, god I spelled Vale wrong!' Good thing nobody is a super hardcore RWBY fan and criticized me for it. I dodged a real bullet there. But I'm also really glad they showed a map of the city so that I could bring some aspects of that into the story, and I could talk about it more openly without having to be worried about ruining the entire **_**real**_** RWBY universe. Because RWBY is totally real. Now, enough of me yammering on, enjoy!**

Ruby screamed as Yang came flying at her, a large grin plastered on her face despite the dangerous situation she was in. But, before she hit the ground, she ducked into a roll in front of Ruby, summersaulting into her sister and accidently pinning her to the ground. "Hey, sis! What's up?" She laughed at her own joke before climbing off of her.

Ruby stood up as well, hands on her hips. "What did you do?"

"There's this kid, Sky, I don't think you've met him, but he told me about these _awesome _launch pads! I wanted to test them, which he said he was perfectly okay with, so I did! And let me tell you, they. Are. So. Cool."

She shook her head in mock disapproval before asking her question. "Yang, do you know what part of Vale has all the clubs? Particularly the Dusk?"

She smirked like she knew something. "Why? You got a date?"

Ruby's cheeks reddened slightly and she glared at her sister, hands clenched in fists. "N-no! I just said that I'd meet some kid there tonight at 8!"

"What's his name?"

"Why do you assume it's a guy?"

"Well, is it?"

She bowed her head in defeat, mumbling. "Yes."

Yang waved her hand in an act of dismissal. "Whatever. You're lucky I plan on going out for some drinks tonight anyway. Mind if I tag along? I promise I won't crash your date by getting too drunk."

"Yang, you're only seventeen!"

She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "Oh, please. Don't tell me I don't look eighteen! And eighteen is the legal drinking age! I've done it plenty of times. The only problem is, on our side they recognize me. Or they recognize my bike."

She gave her a look before caving in. "Fine. Just don't kill yourself. We have to find Nora and Ren…" As soon as the words left her mouth, an excited squeal reached their ears, unmistakably Nora's. They both turned to see Nora skipping up to them, a few black feathers clinging to her clothes and stuck in her hair.

"Oh, hey guys! Do you know where I can find another big raven-bird? That was so much fun!"

Ren came running up behind her before leaning forward, hands on knees, breathing heavily. "Nora. Never do that again."

Yang stared at her for a while with a look of awe on her face before a smile started to form on her lips. "Did you just ride a Nevermore?" (**A/N: A few weeks ago in class I came to the realization that the giant raven-thing is called a Nevermore because that's what the raven said in The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. I know, right? That's really clever! Then I went on the Wiki and it said that, so it made me feel kind of disappointed… oh well.**)

"Yeah, it was fun! But then I broke it and it couldn't play anymore." She frowned, saddened slightly.

"Where did you, er, park it?"

"On the cliff top, of course! Wanna see it?"

"Do I!" Yang started to follow Nora, dragging Ruby by the arm, who, in turn, grabbed Ren. She started taking them to the cliff, where, surprisingly, a dead Nevermore could be seen lying from a distance. Yang started to run after Nora, who had picked up the pace. A few feet from the body, Ruby's hand slipped from Yang's grasp and she fell forward onto the ground, already having let go of Ren a few feet before. She slowly started to get up, hearing some rustling as Yang and Nora poked at the giant bird. As she rose to her feet, she froze, seeing the cliff a few feet in front of her. Images flashed through her head as her feet numbly moved toward it.

"Summer? Where did you go?" Her lips moved unintentionally and she stopped right at the edge of the cliff, all noises becoming faint and fading into the background. She saw a snowy forest in front of her, a grave resting on the cliff side. She stared down, her cloak whipping in the wind around her legs, the snow bleak and cold, stinging her face.

"How's the view?" A voice directly in her ear startled her so that she was shocked out of her memory, turning around quickly to see who it was and losing her footing, stepping back, her foot meeting air and she started to fall. She almost started to panic, a short scream escaping her mouth, but she snapped her mouth shut, drawing out Crescent Rose and slamming it into the face of the cliff. She swung back and forth before bringing herself back up, landing cleanly in front of the person who had startled her. He had burnt-orange hair and blue eyes that were almost the same color as Jaune's.

"Ruby!" Yang came running towards her, skidding to a halt before gazing at her with worried eyes. "Are you okay?" She turned to the boy, anger clear on her face. "What the hell? I could kill you right now, you-" She raised her fist to punch him, but Ruby cut her off, both in speech and action.

"Chill. This is my job." She drew back Yang's fist before raising her own, hitting him clean on the jaw. He was knocked back, hitting the ground a few feet away. "You're lucky I don't put my scythe through your gut. Baka."

He groaned, standing up unsteadily. The other boys who she hadn't noticed with him came and helped him up. "You're going to pay for that!" She pointed her scythe at him, raising one eyebrow in a come-at-me-bro position. "Later. Why are you even here? You're no student."

"None of your business."

"Are you from the other side?"

She remained silent and felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked over, surprised to see a man with grey hair and a cane looking over her at the boy.

"She is here at my request, Cardin. Now, please mind your own business and stop causing trouble with other students. Return to your studies. All of you." Cardin scowled at him once before turning quickly, storming off with his goonies following him.

As soon as they were gone, Ruby turned to the professor, her shoulders sagging down from their once defiant pose. She looked down, her bangs covering her eyes. "You're going to send me back, aren't you?"

"Actually, no." She looked up suddenly, startled. He sighed. "My name is Professor Ozpin. Ruby Rose, you are an extraordinary fighter. I also know what it's like to have very few options." His eyes gained a sort of far-off look to them, but he continued. "So, I will let you stay on school grounds. I will alert the teachers of a few more students' presence here, so you will have full permission to be here. I only ask that you are careful. Some students might recognize you here. With that, who are you your friends?"

She stumbled at first, surprise still evident in her features. She pointed at each one of them in turn. "T-that's Yang Xiao Long. That's Nora Valkyrie. That's Lie Ren."

He nodded in some sort of recognition, eyes wise and full of knowledge. "The only thing I regret is that I cannot protect you if one of the Shades of Grimm tries to retrieve you. I will be taking my leave now. Stay vigilant." He walked slowly back to the building in the middle of the campus, sipping his coffee along the way.

"Whoa, you're so lucky! We almost got busted!" Yang's comment burst the silence. "Oh yeah, are you okay? You kinda got knocked off the cliff and stuff… what happened to you?"

"I kinda spaced out, but I'm fine, thanks to Crescent Rose!" She folded it back up, stroking it and making a weird cat noise.

Yang rolled her eyes. "Can we just go?"

"Go…?"

"You'll see!" She grabbed her hand and Nora's, pulling them along towards the brilliant city below the falls.

**A/N: Yes, this took much, much longer than it was supposed to, but I kind of forgot about it for a while. Hopefully it was still of good quality. I was going to start talking on and on about other things that somewhat related to this, but then I decided that everyone waited long enough. The only relative thing is that I got my hair cut like Ruby! It was so long before, but now it's short and awesome. Until next time! ~SC**


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